Music Monday #15 - If You're Reading This It's Too Late x Low Key

On Thursday, Drake dropped this visual below:

Then on Friday the 13th, which was supposed to be a day of weird/bad luck, at midnight Drake surprisingly dropped If You're Reading This It's Too Late. A few minutes later I received a Facebook notification about Brandon LaBraun dropping Low Key! Even though I personally don't believe in luck, I would have to say that this was not a traditional Friday the 13th!

If you know me, you know that I am a huge Drake fan and I love all of the tracks on the album/mixtape. However, I love some more than others. In the beginning of the tape, I was loving the sample of Ginuwine's So Anxious on Legend and when I hear Energy and 10 Bands I just want to dance. Know Yourself makes me want to gather up the crew and ride around! Three songs that I was loving were back to back to back. The first song was Company. I am a big Travi$ Scott fan and I loved the beat switch. Anytime he write a song about his mom, I am loving it so, You & The 6 was instantly one of my faves. I am also a fan of PARTYNEXTDOOR, so I enjoyed Preach and Wednesday Night Interlude. But like I said earlier, I love all of the tracks on the album. You can listen to the album on Spotify if you haven't heard it yet!

I got a chance to catch up with the founder of Dat Word, NetHippy, TwitFarm, and Full Native Studio, and now local artist, Brandon Labraun, to discuss his new project, Low Key! Check out the interview below:

TLGF: Brandon Labraun - Low Key. Where did you come up with the name?

Brandon Labraun: I titled the project “Low Key” to go along with the whole “personal” theme of the mixtape. The mixtape contains tracks that highlight different stages of my life. From “Red Dirt” (Elementary-Middle School) to “Graduation” (High School – College) and “Busy” (Post College). I make a lot of references to my personal life, friends, family and hometown throughout the project. If you look close at the album cover, you can see a road which is the road that I grew up on. Before I stopped rapping, I was involved in a near death car accident on that road, which is why the album cover is like all crazy colored. It’s like that’s how things looked from my point of view at that time when I thought I was about to die. So I decided to come up with a title that describes myself personally. I’m a very “Low Key” person. I keep to myself a lot, don’t go out much, I’m a pretty quiet, soft spoken and laid back individual. I just be coolin’.

TLGF: I read that this is your first release since high school in 2006. What made you say, "Now I want to release this project!"?

Brandon Labraun: Making music is something that I’ve always loved to do as a hobby. I think I started when I was maybe 8 years old and I would freestyle to video game theme songs while I played them lol. A few years ago I just stopped doing it for some reason. I stopped doing a lot of things that I was talented at because other activities took priority in my life like keeping my grades up and running track. But now (even though I have a full time job) I have some spare time to tap back into my original talents and hobbies. You know like that feeling of “unfinished business”? That’s how I felt about music, like I always wanted to legitimately release a decent mixtape and I never did. So I just had to get it off of my chest. I guess it was just a random act for personal satisfaction.

TLGF: If you had to categorize your music, what genre would it best fit? I ask this because I am getting Tyler, The Creator and Drake vibes on some of the tracks.

Brandon Labraun: That’s a good question. Right, I used instrumentals from “6 God” and “48” for my first two tracks on the tape because I wanted to remake something from two of my favorite artists. But honestly I have no idea. I try not to correlate myself with any other artist because in my opinion it makes producing music pretty much pointless. If you notice lately, the new artists that reach some kind of success are ones who sound/do something different. Before “No Flex Zone” came out, nobody heard anything like Rae Sremmurd’s delivery. Before “Tuesday” came out, nobody heard anyone who flowed like Makonnen. Too many artists now are TRYING to sound like someone else. I just say whatever, and I can rap pretty much about anything. Most can only spit about one thing/topic, and produce like 100 songs all about that one thing to fit themselves into a genre (Trap, Hardcore, Lyrical, etc.). There are tons of subcategories and flows within hip hop that I touch on within one single mixtape. To be honest, I really don’t even know my style well enough yet to fit myself into one genre. I just spit flames about a variety of things. Some are serious/real life stories, some are completely comical and some are complete nonsense. I’m kind of like Lil B as an artist. So yeah, I say don’t fit into anything. I really don’t want to, because I think that would limit my creativity.

TLGF: What do you think makes you unique from other artists?

Brandon Labraun: This kind of goes back to the previous Q/A. I think it’s safe to say that the variety of my content and delivery is what makes me unique. Like I said before, seems like most artists out there have one flow, one style and one topic. I do all kinds of shit. I also like to engage with my friends, fans and followers. With “Low Key” I collaborated with my cousin and good friend from high school, random followers on twitter, all kinds of people. I openly invite random people to drop in and do/say pretty much whatever they want with one of my tracks if I need it. It’s like a token of appreciation and a chance to give back to people who support me.

TLGF: Speaking of Twitter, how can you be found online?

Brandon Labraun: I’m all over the internet. I can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat @brandonlabraun. The best way to reach out to me is just follow or mention me on Twitter. I stay on there basically all day. Facebook is pretty much useless to me. I also just recently built myself a new website at www.brandonlabraun.com.

TLGF: Anything else you would like to share?

Brandon Labraun: I would like to thank you for reaching out to interview me! It means a lot to me when people show interest in my work. For the readers, more information about me is pretty much all on the mixtape, my Twitter and website.

TLGF: Thanks for doing the interview and I wish you nothing but success!

What are your thoughts on If You're Reading This It's Too Late and Low Key? I would love to know so drop me a comment below.

Thanks for supporting this blog and stopping by!

Love,